ARA: Where is the best place to sell my stuff?

I know when you got married you combined households and had items you needed to sell. My question for you and your readers is this. What is the best way to get rid of extra household items and make some cash.

I have used Craigslist for ticket sales but always met the sellers in public. Have your readers had success with Craigslist buyers actually coming to their home to look at furniture etc. What else works -E Bay? Want Ads,

I do have some stuff I am giving away to local charities such as Salvation Army but my questions is for items I need to actually sell such as TV’s, couches, chairs, garage items etc.

14 Responses

I have used craigslist to sell items – I am a pretty small woman for reference and kind of scared to have people come into my house. I try to screen based on emails for interest of the item and can sometimes even be successful googling the person emailing me to find out who they are first. I also rely on their grammar/tone/spelling to decide if I respond back to them.

The other thing I do is when I schedule the person to come over, I invite a rather large male friend of mine to come over and just hang out at the time someone will show up to view the item I’m selling. I have only had good experiences so far but don’t feel comfortable inviting someone I don’t know over to my house when I’m alone.

I haven’t had any bad experiences but still keep cautious when I sell items. I also price my items about $50 more than I want to get at a minimum because people seem to haggle once they’re in person looking at an item.

I have had great success on Craigslist selling a variety of household items and furniture. I’ve sold couches, entertainment centers, wall decor, jewelry armoire, buffet, kitchen table, poker table & chairs, coffee & end tables and even appliances throughout the years of changing apartments and eventually moving into a house.

The trick with Craigslist is not to overprice and be up front if there is any damage to what you’re selling. I always take pictures of damage so there aren’t any surprises when the buyer arrives. Plus, pictures help items sell faster. Put the item on for what you think it’s worth and make sure to remember that people don’t expect to pay close to retail for a used item, even if it’s fairly new. Generally, people will offer you less for it, usually on the phone or by email but sometimes they will barter in person. I have negotiated the selling price back up when I felt that the buyer’s price was not acceptable. Most times people bring the original amount of cash for the item anyway. I would think about how low you would go on your items when you post them but list them for what you want since some people (like me) are really uncomfortable bartering. Also, be sure if you only want calls to ask that no one e-mails or vice versa if you only want e-mails. If you don’t want to help the person load the item in their car or can’t deliver, make sure to write that in your original post so you aren’t stuck trying to fit a love seat into the back of someone’s Subaru for an hour. Also, it can be somewhat discouraging when someone doesn’t show up but keep your listing up and let all interested parties know that the item is pending but if it changes, you’ll let them know.

I have people come to my house but I’m never alone and I try to move the item to my garage or at least to the front of my house so that no one is walking through. Good luck!

I’ve sold several things on Craigslist from cars to furniture. It’s the way to go. If you price your product appropriately and use a little common sense vetting your potential buyers, you’ll have a good experience.

I have had great luck with Craigslist.
However, it has to be the right stuff. For instance, I wouldn’t try to sell a bunch of knick-knacks on Craigslist. But if you have bigger piece items like furniture and stuff like that – then Craigslist is a good place to start.

Tough situation. We had a yard sale. We made pennies on the dollar for things, but it worked for us at the time. I have also sold things through Craigslist – but that is always a crapshoot. So many scammers (oh, I will send payment via Western Union, etc), and to be truthful, I dont want to give my address to people, but I dont wanna go way out of my way for someone who may never show up!

So, what do you do? It all depends on what you want to get for it. I still use Craigslist, but it take a little longer to weed through the scams.

Correction to my original post.. I did not mean barter, I meant haggle… lol if people tried to trade things with me, I’d kindly ask them to leave!

Also, once your item is gone – take your post down. You will get scammers emailing you for ages if your email is still posted! And obviously, use common sense. You can tell what is a scam versus what is an actual interested customer by just reading the emails closely. If they want to send money to you, it’s a scam.

I had great success with Craig’s List…the only issue I had was a “gentleman”/business owner from out of the area wanted me to send him my furniture. It kinda raised red flags. He wanted me to book a mover, and have the mover come and take my furniture. He said he would overnight me a check once I had the amount the movers would cost (plus the cost of the furniture of course). I did not sell to him. My recommendations are to clearly state “cash and carry day of purchase” on your add.

I have put three things on Craigslist without any trouble, even to the point of having them come into my home. It was stuff that I chose to give away free to whoever was crazy enough to come and get it. I didn’t have any real trouble with scammers, because it is in the free section, and for the most part, only really serious people contacted me, and eventually picked up the large pieces of furniture that weren’t worth much anyway.

When I was finishing grad school and moving back to the area, I used Craigslist to get rid of most of my furniture. That was in the Buffalo area. However, when I moved out of my last apartment in Nassau and into my house, I had a big problem with people saying they’d be over to pick up the furniture, and then never showing up. I had to drag furniture with me and put it out on the curb at the new house with a “FREE” sign on it. In the new house, I’ve tried to get rid of stuff for FREE and people were making arrangements to meet me and the never showing up. I’ve given up on Craigslist for selling anything. Now I just put it out at the curb, put a “FREE” sign on it, and put a curb-alert out on CL, which gets deleted as soon as the stuff is gone.

My point is basically, be prepared for a lot of scammers and no-shows who like to spend their time screwing with people.

My husband sold our lawn mower on Craigslist and the purchaser was wonderful. I was very nervous as I am currently home for the summer with our newborn baby and was worried about people coming over. The only advice I can give is to speak to the person on the phone, you can get more of a feel for them and you can discuss whether or not there is an option to haggle. Put the items in your garage so there is no need for them to come into your house and if they ask to go in just say no. Make sure someone is there with you and/or on the phone with you at the time.

This might be far fetched because I am from Massachusetts. But lately on facebook there has been a group created called Berkshire Tag Sales. And in the past month it has EXPLODED! It’s basically having a tag sale without lugging everything outside. I joined a few weeks ago and have already made over $140. Some people post cars, baby clothes, tables, appliances, vacations. etc. Maybe its something to look into where you are from! :) Good Luck!